Jim Pendrill
[email protected]
07787 100 484
An award-winning business
journalist and founder of
Pendrill Media.
SO WHAT NOW FOR THE NORTHERN
POWERHOUSE?
Jim Pendrill reports.
At the recent launch of the Northern
Powerhouse Partnership, the former
Chancellor George Osborne once
again held aloft his claims that the
Northern Powerhouse was alive and
well and he was going to continue to
drive it, even from the back seat.
Prime Minister Theresa May also
calmed the nerves of Northern
businesses who feared it was a
project that was going to end up
on the same political scrapheap
as the Big Society. Writing in the
Manchester Evening News and
following an earlier piece in the
Yorkshire Post, she listed a string of
achievements under Osborne and
David Cameron, including rising
levels of employment and billions
in new rail investment - not all of
which has yet come through, but
which Northern leaders have been
keen to see guaranteed.
The previous administration’s
achievements were ‘huge, tangible
changes’ she writes, but adds
more needs to be done to ‘put local
people back in control’.
“I will work with leaders here in
Greater Manchester to build on the
Northern Powerhouse, celebrating
and further spurring the enormous
The
Northern
Powerhouse
Independent Economic Review
also provided the hard economic
case in the wake of Brexit. As Lord
O’Neill, the former chairman of
Goldman Sachs Asset Management
and current government minister
commented: “As the Chancellor
has said, the referendum result
is even more of an instruction
to deliver on our work to build a
Northern Powerhouse. We will
continue to work together to make
the North an even better place to
live, work and invest in and remind
the world that the region is open
for business.”
And as Sir Richard Leese, Leader
of
Manchester
City
Council,
added: “The prevailing economic
uncertainty following the EU
referendum result makes it even
more essential that Northern cities
are given the tools and investment to
work together to create the jobs and
opportunities the region needs and
help rebalance the nation’s economy.”
But given the enormity of the task
facing Whitehall in the wake of
the Brexit vote, what realistically
are the chances that the Northern
Powerhouse will remain anywhere
near the top of the political agenda
in the months and years to come?
ONSIDE WINTER 2016 |
“I don’t want to see our country
dependent on one city any more.
I want to get all of our great cities
firing on all cylinders to rebalance
our economy,” she said.
contribution and potential of
cities like Manchester, to deliver
economic prosperity and more
opportunities for everyone.”
33